Lady Crusaders advance to league championship match for 9th straight year

Thursday

Nov 7, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 7, 2013 at 6:12 PM

Richard Walker

BELMONT – It took some dramatics, but Belmont Abbey College’s women’s soccer team will be in familiar territory again on Saturday.

The Crusaders needed penalty kicks to advance past third-seeded Barton at Alumni Field on Thursday after the teams tied 1-1 through two overtime periods.

But Mike Lynch nor his second-seeded team will apologize for how they advanced into Saturday’s 1 p.m. Conference Conference championship game against Pfeiffer.

“Having the experience of a tight game like this should help us,” Lynch said after his team won 4-2 on penalty kicks after the tie. “Our goal was to get seeded high in the conference and, hopefully, get homefield advantage.

“We’ve accomplished both of those goals with (top-seeded) Lees-McRae getting knocked out (in Monday’s quarterfinals). Now we’ve just got to get ready for Pfeiffer.”

Thursday marked the fourth straight year and sixth time in seven years the Lady Crusaders have had a league tournament game determined by penalty kicks; The Abbey is 3-3 is such contests.

In this one, the Abbey (14-3-2) took a 1-0 lead when Robin Hatcher assisted a Laura Shelton goal in the 39th minute.

But Barton (14-5-1) got the equalizer in the 83rd minute when Jodi Barber scored on a rebound of a shot saved by the Abbey’s Hannah Kohls.

The Lady Crusaders had two more strong chances, as two shots at an open goal misfired in the 85th minute and a goal trickled into the net seconds after the game’s final buzzer.

In the first overtime period, Kohls saved two of the three shots as the Bulldogs outshot the Crusaders 3-0.

Neither team had a shot in the second overtime in a contest where the Abbey outshot its opponent 14-13.

During the penalty kicks, Barton scored on its first try but missed its next two shots as the Abbey was a perfect four-for-four on its tries.

Cassidy Coutinho, Silvia Vazquez, Theresa Mateo and Meghan Philp converted the penalty kicks for the Crusaders, with Philp’s shot clinching the win and setting off a victory celebration outside the goalie box nearest the Wheeler Center.

“The interesting thing is that we’ve missed a lot of scoring opportunities this year and Barton’s had a lot of late-game wins,” Lynch said. “It was looking a little bit like the perfect storm for them to me, but we managed to find a way to win.”

The Abbey will have history on its side as it pursues its eighth league title on Saturday. The Lady Crusaders are 7-1-2 in their previous championship games, winning titles in 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2012.

A victory also would ensure the Abbey’s seventh NCAA Division II tournament appearance – and fourth in five years.

“We expect another tough game, a lot like we had with Barton today,” said Lynch, whose team won 1-0 at Pfeiffer on Sept. 28 in the regular-season meeting between the schools.

You can reach Richard Walker at 704-869-1841 or by twitter.com/JRWalk22